A rigid carton of packets of cigarettes is normally defined by a parallelepiped-shaped container formed by folding a blank about a group of five/ten packets of cigarettes, and having a top portion which is torn open by the user along a precut tear line to extract the packets of cigarettes. A user normally removes one packet of cigarettes at a time from the carton at intervals normally ranging between one and three days, so the carton is used for three to thirty days by a normal user, depending on the number of packets of cigarettes in the carton (normally five or ten) and the number of cigarettes normally smoked by the user. Once the carton is opened, however, e.g. by tearing along a precut tear line, it cannot be closed again, as normally required in the case of relatively prolonged use. Known rigid cartons of packets of cigarettes also fail to provide for adequate mechanical protection of the packets.
WO-0010892-A discloses a carton for containing a plurality of packs of cigarettes and having a shell and slide construction. One end of the shell is partially open to allow the user to push the lidded slide, containing packs of cigarettes, to an open position; this is defined by a hooking engagement between shell and slide to expose just a little more of a lid of the slide than a detachable portion, which is detached by the user to expose only one pack at a time for extraction from the carton. However, the rigid carton of packets of cigarettes disclosed by WO-0010892-A is relatively complex and thus expensive to produce.